July 2nd to 8th, 2023
856,
This week’s report is short, like summer here. Enjoy the Fest if you’re out there, or the cabin if you’re there. If you’re in the city like me all weekend, enjoy the space we have with all those people out at Bird’s Hill or scattered across cabin country! Go Blue, and remember, the working class will win in the end.
NOTICE OF VACANCY
Until Wednesday, July 12th at midnight, the local is accepting applications for a temporary assignment.
We are looking to have an interim health and safety officer join the team while Reggie Taman takes some time away. All provisions of local bylaw 6.3 will apply.
All applicants are encouraged to forward a resume and a cover letter explaining why you would like and would be good at the position to connect@cupwwpg.ca.
The local executive will meet and consider the applications on Thursday, July 13th, and inform the successful applicant on Friday, July 14th.
Good luck!
UPCOMING RESTRUCTURES
There was an updated restructure schedule released this week, and SSD is coming for the Southwest and Moray depots in 2024.
Ten years ago, the union grieved the two-bundle delivery method. Earlier this year, the arbitrator on the file rejected our grievance and ruled in favour of the employer. In May, it was ruled that we lost the SSD grievance.
And it seems like the employer absolutely loves it because SSD is now being rolled out across the country. Local consultations, which are supposed to be meaningful and constructive, are really just a dog and pony show because at the end of the day, the answer is SSD.
The union had the power to file grievances, but the ruling class sided with the employer and not the workers. Shocking, I know.
The grievances did not work. The employer is emboldened by this. If you don’t want SSD, stand up and make noise. Talk to your supervisors about your concerns every day. When you have health and safety meetings, ask them about frostbite and being outside all day in a Winnipeg winter. Get people together in your workplace and tell the boss what you think of their plans for your work.
The local, for what it’s worth, has a good plan. Corporate agents tell us all the time SSD is about making space in the depots. When we tell them we have a plan that will increase the floorspace in the depots to a greater degree than SSD and letter carriers will still be able to sort their own mail. Then, SSD restructures become about shifting the direction of the business to focus on parcels.
We’re not sure how letting letter carriers sort their own mail is going to prevent the delivery of parcels, but that’s the answer.
Now or never, really, because letter carrying is changing, and it’s changing fast.
TRUDEAU DAYS
You got six of ’em, and you gotta use ’em, but there are a few details about the Canada Labour Code mandated sick days, a.k.a. Trudeau Days, that we don’t know.
We know that the Canada Labour Code says workers get 10 days a year. This year, we’ve been given 12. We also know there is a bit of a dispute as to what kind of days these should be, and how they should be applied.
The Code says they are sick days, to be used for sickness. But we know that if postal workers take a personal day, a Trudeau day is being used to cover the day before a collective agreement personal day.
The corporation credited postal workers’ accounts with six days in January, and now another six on July 1st. So, you’ve got six again, and the general belief is that you won’t get six more until next July.
And we still don’t know if they’re prorated or what. Best to assume that they are prorated. If you’re going to be retiring in a couple of months, you probably shouldn’t take all of them. But that’s just an assumption right now! Who knows? Nobody. I’ve been asking.
GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETINGS
The local is hosting a general membership meeting tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. at the Bronx Park Community Centre at 720 Henderson Highway.
Tomorrow, we’ll be reviewing the year’s finances and talking about a five-year, $250 annual donation to a bursary for Indigenous students taking labour studies programs at the University of Manitoba. There is no meeting in August, but we’ll be back in September. At that meeting, we’ll be electing the year’s Winnipeg and District Labour Council delegation from the local.
Peace,
Matthew